New Zealand passes EV legislation

New Zealand has passed legislation that sets standards for electric vehicles (EVs) to ensure it meets its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions target of a 41pc reduction by 2030 from 2005 levels.

The country previously had no minimum emissions standards for road transport, which, together with Russia and Australia, was only one of three countries in the developed world without such standards.

The passing of the Land Transport (Clean Vehicles) Amendment Bill last week paves the way for the New Zealand government to enforce emission standards on the industry and follows on from a recommendation by its key climate advisor to adopt an EV policy by 30 June 2022.

The country's Climate Change Commission (CCC) recommended that New Zealand adopt an emissions standard policy for imported light vehicles to average 105g of CO2/km. This is still above the standard set by the EU of 95g of CO2/km during 2020-24, reducing by a further 15pc from 2025, or about 81g CO2/km, and declining by 37pc from 2020-24 levels from 2030 to around 60g of CO2/km.

Emissions from New Zealand's vehicle fleet have increased by 90pc since 1990, far more than any sector in the economy, including agriculture and energy, the country's transport minister Michael Wood said.

"One of the reasons for that is because there has been a total lack of legislative or regulatory leadership in this area. New Zealand, up until today, is one of only three countries in the OECD, alongside Australia and Russia, that don't have a vehicle emissions standard. And that is one of the reasons why we have one of the dirtiest vehicle fleets in the world," Wood said.

"It's very, very clear that, as the rest of the world continues to increase its level of ambition, as the rest of the world moves to bring cleaner cars into their fleet, if we don't take action here in New Zealand, we will become, even more than we are now, the dumping ground for the dirtiest vehicles in the world," the minister added.

Petrol and diesel cars accounted for around 11mn t of CO2 equivalent (CO2e), or about 14pc of New Zealand's total GHG emissions, in 2019, which was the last year of audited accounts for New Zealand's emissions. New Zealand also imported around 300,000 light vehicles in 2019, according to the CCC.

New Zealand is also in the process of shutting its only refinery, the 135,000 b/d Marsden Point, and converting it into a fuel import terminal.

By Kevin Morrison